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PART II. — PRACTICAL ADYICE. 



I. THE USE OF COMB-FOUNDATION. 



The success of modern bee-culture tinges almost entirely in the first place 

 on securing complete control over the breeding, and this can only be 

 obtained by compelling the bees to build whatever kind of comb is desired. 

 Under natural conditions, or when in hives and allowed freedom to 

 construct their combs, they invariably build a goodly proportion of 

 drone-comb, which is subsequently utilised for breeding drones. This 

 accounts for the large number of drones to be seen in box hives, or where 

 no attempt has been made to control breeding. Drones, as most people 

 are aware, are non-producers — that is to say, they do not gather 

 honey, or even, so far as we know, do any work in the hives. They are 

 physically incapable, but they consume a large quantity of food gathered 

 by the workers, and where many are present the yield of honey from that 

 hive, and consequently the profit, will be considerably curtailed. Some 

 drones are needed for the impregnation of young queens, but it is found 

 in practice that a sufficient number for this purpose will be bred, even when 

 the breeding of them is restricted as much as possible, by making the fullest 

 use of worker-comb foundation. 



The difierence between worker and drone comb is in the size of the 

 cells, the former measuring slightly over five to the inch, and the latter 

 a little over four. The proportions are shown in Plate XIII. The comb- 

 foundation obtained from manufacturers is invariably impressed with the 

 bases of worker-cells, so that it is impossible, unless by accident some portion 

 has stretched, for the bees to build other than worker-comb on it. The illus- 

 trations will make this clear. Plate XIV shows a perfect worker-comb 

 built out on a full sheet of comb-foundation, while Plate XIII exhibits the 

 result of the breaking-away of a portion and the stretching of another por- 

 tion due to careless filing of what was originally a perfect sheet of worker- 

 comb foundation. These are very interesting reproductions from photo- 

 graphs taken specially for the purpose of this bulletin. To the right of 

 Plate XIII can be seen where the bees took advantage of the accident to 

 build drone-comb, and also where on the upper left centre the original 

 worker-cells have stretched and been utilised for breeding drones. At the 

 lower right-hand comer of Plate XIV a small portion of the original sheet of 

 comb-foundation upon which the comb is built can be distinctly seen. 



